


Worm but Emma's read Worm but she uses it only for more material to bully Taylor with

by EtchJetty



Series: Etch's Sketches - A One-Shot Collection [14]
Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Gen, Meme, Meta
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-17
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-11-15 12:56:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20866589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EtchJetty/pseuds/EtchJetty
Summary: See title.





	Worm but Emma's read Worm but she uses it only for more material to bully Taylor with

"Gonna cry yourself to sleep for a week?"  
  
There it was. The tears started coming. I could feel them building up. All around me, Emma's sycophants looked excited, even eager, to watch me break down.  
  
"Or maybe you'll shoot another toddler," said Emma. "Aster Anders not enough for you?"  
  
I was crying, now, but I stayed there. "Wh-what?" I said, half laughing, half choking.  
  
"God, if you were this fucked up _before _Panacea messed with your head, I can't imagine how Khepri would react to this kind of thing. Bitch."  
  
I didn't even know what she was saying anymore, but I had basically stopped crying by this point.  
  
"I thought Panacea didn't do brains," said one of Emma's followers. Boolia, maybe. I didn't know her name.  
  
"Shut the fuck up, Boolia," said Emma. "You haven't read _Worm,_ I have."  
  
"What's _Worm_?" asked Madison. I was also wondering that, but right now I didn't really want to open my mouth for fear of more sobs escaping.  
  
"It's this book I found online," said Emma. "The link is [here](https://parahumans.wordpress.com/), but it follows Taylor through 2013. It's basically, like, the perfect blackmail material."  
  
I could tell something was off about the way Emma had said the word "here," like there was some power embedded in it. But Emma didn't have powers, did she?  
  
"Does Taylor get with anyone?" asked Madison, with a little too much excitement than should have been normal.  
  
"Just some guy named Brian. He's too stupid to even find his way out of a fridge, though, so I guess that's fitting for this idiot," replies Emma. I looked back at Madison, and was that a twinge of _disappointment _in her features?  
  
I began to process what she was saying. "You're saying you have an account of my life through the next two years, and you're just using it to bully me?" I asked, incredulously.  
  
"Bully is a strong word," said Emma.  
  
"A very strong word," said Sophia. "We wouldn't want to be throwing accusations around, would we, Hebert?"  
  
I startled. That was actually the first time I noticed that Sophia was there at all.  
  
"When did you get here?" Boolia asked Sophia.  
  
"That leads me into my next point," said Emma. "None of this is real, so anything I try with long-term consequences doesn't matter."  
  
I couldn't begin to describe what I felt when I realized that Emma had totally snapped. Shock, maybe, that my former best friend had fallen so far. Elation, that it wasn't anything _I _was doing to cause her to bully me. She just dove off the deep end.  
  
Somehow, that didn't surprise me. What did surprise me is that people who were otherwise sane like Boolia and the half-dozen other girls whose names I didn't remember would follow this maniac in her quest to hurt my feelings.  
  
"Could, uh, could you elaborate?" asked Madison.  
  
"Take a look around you, Mads," said Emma. "We're in a one-shot collection on the Hugo Award-winning website Archive Of Our Own. None of this is real. Our existence ends with the end of this post. We only have 77 words left before we all permanently stop existing. But the longer I keep bullying Taylor, the more I can guarantee all of our survivals."  
  
I didn't know what she meant. Maybe I never would.  
  
"Which is why I have to do this, Tay. Sorry." She looked at me, and for once, for _once_, I saw something approaching regret in her eyes.  
  
Then she stepped forward and punched me in the gut. "Take that, you worm," said Emma.


End file.
